Syama Bunten
Women don’t talk about money the way we should. Not honestly, not openly, and not with each other. But that’s changing. I’m Shama Bunton, founder of Wealth Catalyst. And getting rich together is where the conversation lives. Every week, a different woman, a different path, and a conversation that will change how you think about your own financial power. This community is growing and you belong in it.

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She is wearing a beautiful blue blouse with a stunning smile. I am here today with powerhouse Twyla Garrett. Twyla, you are known around the country for many, many different reasons, all of them exceptional. You have been an entrepreneur that has spanned federal accounting, homeland security consulting, heading up construction and development nationwide. My love, having founded and scaled and exited multiple businesses, what you’re doing today just really reflects all of your strengths, disciplined execution, creative design, long-term value creation, and a deep, deep commitment to community. Your heart, your mind, your money are all tracking to the same vision. It is an honor and a pleasure to have you here today on getting rich together. Thank you for being here.

Twyla Garrett
Thank you. Thank you so much for honoring me to be on your platform, which you’ve made an amazing community that I adore and I’m so grateful to be part of it. And so thank you for the opportunity.

Syama Bunten
So before we jump into all of the brilliance and all of the master planning and your book that launched and all this crazy new amazing stuff that’s going on, I always love to start from the beginning. I’d love to start with a little girl, maybe one who didn’t know she had a tremendous fashion sense or maybe one who did, but Twilight, take us back to a young girl somewhere between 10 and 12 years old. Where were you in this beautiful world of ours? What was money like and what was life like?

Twyla Garrett
My God. So you might end up crying in this. So my 10 to 14 was in a turbulent relationship with my mom. So my mom, you know, in the black community, they didn’t understand and really talk about dysfunction. They definitely didn’t talk about mental health. And my mom was a nurse. mean, great person. looked like her. I got her to nasty. But my mom was struggling and in that raising four kids by herself, we were very poor. Cleveland, Ohio was where I grew up.

It was not unheard to see rats and roaches running around in your kitchen and also in your refrigerator. That was kind of the life I lived. At the age of 14, by that time I had been stabbed by my mom a couple of times. She was very abusive and I was taken away. I was taken away, ended up in juvenile home. And then when I was in juvenile home, I met a judge called Stephanie Tubbs and it just took me to a whole other world. I ended up going to my father who I never really met. I think I had a relationship maybe at two.

So I never knew him. I went to him and I ran away a couple of times and was back in Juvenile home. And I was told, look, you got to automate it. Either you’re going to age out in this system in Cleveland, or you’re going back to your father because you’re not going back to your mom. And I remember the last time I saw my mom, it was in the courthouse of Cleveland. She had flipped over the table, got a little bit angry because they were taking me away to my dad, which she hated. It was that love relationship that created so much turmoil that it wasn’t about us. It was about them.

And her last words to me were, you want to mount to shit, you want to be shit, but broke pregnant and unwelcome. And that is the last words my mother ever uttered to me, ever. And so I went to my father and that’s how it started. I mean, I grew up poor. He was a postman. He worked in the mail handling. I was at the post office. And so he worked at night. imagine being a 14 year old kid at home alone from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. So by the time I was bussed.

So I had to get up in the morning and go take a bus at about seven o’clock or six 30. By the time he got home, I was going to the bus stop. So I didn’t really see him. We had hardly little communication. But the one thing that I did bless busing him, and this is where they say, well, know, busing caused all kinds of problems. Well, for me it inspired me. Cause this was the first time I can get on a bus and actually go to another side of town and see something that didn’t look like my side of town. They had houses with garages and tree lines and it looked a lot better than where I was at. And it didn’t look so scary. And so to this day, when I fly on a plane, I’m on a window seat because I could go see the future. And that’s how I looked at buses. And so I used to see these houses. I used to see people living different, different cars. It really was like the other side of the track. You go to another side of town and it’s like a whole new world. And that inspired me. And I ended up with a teacher, Kenny Genius, and he’s in Florida now. So shout out to Kenny Genius.

He was my social study teacher and he inspired me to stay in it and help me get my SATs and all that stuff. So lo and behold, that’s where I was. I was a kid who had a dream, but it was actually tarnished a lot because I didn’t, just wanted, after I was taken away and given to my dad, I really just wanted to get a job. I mean, that’s all I looked for was like getting the hell out of here. I want to get a job. I don’t know this dude. So let me get through college. Let me get through high school and figure it out. And I remember that judge would, kind of say stuff to me, she would follow me. When I graduated from middle school, which was months later, she was in the audience and they announced her. They was like, oh, we have a judge in the audience, Stephanie Tubbs. And I was like, oh, here she go again. I was one of the rebellious, kids that was like, nah, I don’t wanna see her. And then guess what? High school, she shows up. And it was like, you are going to make something of yourself.

I know when people say certain people can pour in your life, even though they’re not in your life all the time, just that inspiration between Kenny Genius and that judge who then turned to be a congresswoman of Ohio. Yes, she turned out to be the congresswoman of Ohio and my dear friend and mentor, passed away in 2012. But let me tell you, when she passed away, the honoring thing that I could do is put her in the restaurant that I built and, and, and her, her, her repast was done there.

The person that eulogized her was President Clinton. And the person that was in the audience was vice president, you know, the president that was about to become president, Obama who was there. I she was actually Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager. It was amazing to be in her presence. So I had a hell of a childhood and I didn’t dream. I didn’t see anything other than let me get the hell out of here. But I knew I had some inspiration. And the one thing my mom had was tenacity.

When you grow up as a woman in the inner city and men look at you and your cat calls and all the crazy, my mother used to have that mouth to be able to check them. And I ended up with that attitude that my mom gave me. So I’m very grateful for that. That tenacity has put me where I’m at.

Syama Bunten
That’s incredible, Twilight. It’s also, you know, to have a stolen childhood, right? And which means that like the world becomes small, right? It’s like, like my world is small and it goes from here to here and I can see it and everything is like around kind of controlling your own environment, right? It’s like, how do I control it? But then also knowing that

your greatness is gonna lie on the other side of leaving it, you know, and that there’s this bigger calling. And it’s about, I remember one time when I was younger, I was having a conversation with myself and I remember the dialogue was like, Shama, you only need to wait, you know, I think it was eight more years, you know? It’s like, you only need to wait so long, then you can leave. But I also want to acknowledge how how the right invisible, invisible forces were around you. And what a blessing.

Twyla Garrett
I’ve taken back any part of my life. And people have asked me on stage, oh, do you regret that? And no, actually, you know, I’m a firm believer that God knew what I could handle, knew what I could make from it, and knew that it was an experience that I needed to go through. And so now, you know, people used to tell me before when I was coming up in my career and my companies, you can’t tell people that. And I’m like, what do you mean I can’t tell people that?

You don’t want to, but I still want to shit is the shit. I mean, this is my life for me. do you want me to tell her? Want me to make up something? I still have my welfare certificate. When I was 18 going to 19, my last welfare certificate is right here on my desk. And I look at it every single day. So when I got on welfare, it’s because I needed some food. I got to college and they didn’t give me food. So I got on welfare to get food stamps. And the most defining moment of my life was when I went, I was freshman and it was two months in and I was out of udders and noodles. And I ended up in a very beautiful college. Shout out to Erskine College in Pepper Pike, Ohio. They trained this brain and they tamed this woman. And I had no clues. It’s all, you know, thanks to God and Stephanie was like, you’re going to take whoever gives you the most money. I took a college that I didn’t even know was a Catholic college. I went to a college I’ve never even seen a monk. I’d never seen a nun. I didn’t know where these people were. My orientation was the craziest orientation.

that ever had. remember sitting in a room and my father was there and we’re looking around and we see this guy walking around with a dress on, but was a monk and I didn’t know what a monk was. Then I see another one. I mean, my father looked over, he said, well, I don’t know if we’re in the right place. And I was like, I don’t know either. I mean, this don’t even look right. What the hell is this? And so at the end of it, I raised my hand and I said, excuse me, when does the boys get here? They looked at me like, what?

Where the boys dorms at? the boys at? mean, Tyler, you are in an all-girl cafe. What?

Like, are you kidding me? They was like, no. I looked at my father and my father said, you’re not gonna make it. Everybody like, you’re not gonna make it. So, and behold, let me tell you, they wrapped their arms around this kid, crazy tone, crazy mouth, crazy, they saw something. And let me tell you, that school trained me, that the accounting teacher, shout out to Mr. Flood, my business teacher, Ms. Burger. I mean, these people, They saw it. My acumen for math is brilliant and they knew it and they dialed that sucker up and saw she wrote. Everybody’s like, well, you got masters. Yeah, but my foundation, my root is with Erskine College. I know when that light bulb hits there, oh, you’re not gonna work with too many people. No, I knew that. I out with that attitude. I’m not gonna work with anybody.

Syama Bunten
So when you were in school, did you find yourself being really focused in the books, like when you got sort of into it? Okay, what was college like? Spill it.

Twyla Garrett
College was tough. Ursuline was like a 5.0 grading scale. I mean, it was like, what? I was not prepared. Cleveland Public School unfortunately did not prepare me for Ursuline College. I mean, I needed tutoring. I needed everything that they could pour into me. They made me play piano. I was like, what? I don’t play piano? Yeah, you will. You will play piano. And guess what? I remember I invited my father to a recital.

And my teacher, my, my, my, my, my, my, like listen kid you have to play a Beethoven or classic I said well let’s make a bet if I play this and learn this you have to help me learn one of the songs I will. He’s like bet let’s do that. He’s like okay because I don’t know this Beethoven man but I don’t really care about this dude but let’s do this and so he’s like okay do you know he taught me how to play Luther Vandross here and now and we did that was what I picked And we, I practiced and in my dorms we had a piano and I practiced and practiced. I remember inviting my father. He didn’t even know what a recital was. He was like, what are you doing? I said, just come to this thing. They want you to come. So he comes and his sister, my aunt, and then his mother, my grandmother, they all sitting in the audience. And I remember walking out and sitting at the piano and I looked over at my father. was crying. He was like, ⁓ what? You have to play the piano?

Not only did I play this Beethoven thing, I started to play, had two songs. My next song was Luther and I start playing Luther and my piano teacher, who I did not know played the saxophone, walked out with the sax playing with me. And I was like, yes! It was the most amazing experience. ⁓ And so they taught me tennis. I knew nothing about no damn tennis. They was like, you’re gonna run your big butt around this damn tennis court. mean, just what they did.

for me just made my, it still makes me want to cry because I know that that college poured into me and I poured back what I could give. It was hard. I never read Scarlet Letter. I didn’t even know what the hell the Scarlet Letter was. No one having a clue what Moby Dick was. When they showed me that book my freshman year, I said, what do want me to do with this? And they was like, you gotta read it. What? I’d rather read the Bible. I said, give me the Bible. said, what do you want me to do with this thing?

This thing is 500 damn pages. What do want me to do with that? I it was this thing. I could not read this thing. so they like,

Syama Bunten
You’re disciplined, you, huh?

Twyla Garrett
Oh

my God, when I left them and went to DOD, they sharpened that discipline. yeah, they made it. And I remember my freshman year, I finally get to end of the semester of the spring, going into summer, and I’m getting ready to go back to the hood. You go home at summer break, Ursula said, no, we’re not putting you back in that environment. You got to go and interview with the people for a summer job or internship. What?

I don’t go home? No, you’re not going home. And I remember is one of the sisters took me to Goodwill. No lie. It took me to Goodwill because I had no clothes to interview in. And they gave me, they let me pick out some shoes, a skirt and a top and they paid for it. And I went in the gym and I interviewed and I got like eight announcements. They were like, eight people were like, yeah, I got accepted to a whole bunch of And the one that I took my father was like, go to the government. The government said they’re going to keep you. I was like, okay, well.

I did the government internship and it was one of the best things that ever happened. They took me to Pensacola, never been on a plane. mean, know, the journey just started and lo and behold, I graduated and I was the U.S. Naval Academy’s accountant. I was a trust fund accountant. yeah. Every summer I took a break. I went back to the federal building and worked. I did my summer breaks to work and they were closing and bracking and closing. They were doing something called base relocation, bracking.

So we were closing and moving people and DFAS was opening up, which was great. It was like the Ernst & Young of accounting for DOD. So I was an accountant and that’s what I was coming out to be. And I had such a great, right behind me, this picture is my first staff that I worked with in DFAS. And it was just the best experience I had. And I seized every moment. And that’s the way I look at life. I mean, I tell people, if you get up, you got a chance. If you get up.

You got another chance. You just need to take a breath and do it the best. Right. Even if you don’t know when your last day is going to happen. So live like every one of them might be it. Don’t leave nothing on the table. And I tell people this all the time. When I passed my eulogy, when people get up, they can be like, Twilight didn’t leave me not a damn thing on this table. Good, indifferent. I am, I have partied hard. have.

Syama Bunten
So.

Twyla Garrett
played hard, I have worked hard, I have no regrets. And that’s why I was raped as a 10 year old, 12 year old. I mean, I have no regrets on anything God put me through. Cause I knew that if he gave me the business acumen and the mindset, I can get through it. And that’s what I got. I mean, and I tell people, I wrote a book and this book came out right after my mom’s death in 2012. Never spoke to me again.

But it’s called my mother’s words how the most negative influence is my most positive motivator. And it was my mother. I thought my mother, she was negative, but I took what I could in those years of trying to get back in her life and figuring out if she’s going to open the door. And tonight I knew how to now separate that wall, get rid of that, not get rid of the feelings. I loved it, but I had to let it go so I can go. And I did. But it never happened.

Syama Bunten
Yeah, it’s beautiful.

Twyla Garrett
But it’s been an amazing journey. never would regret it, never.

Syama Bunten
Okay, so you finished university, you’ve already secured a job with the government, which most people at the end of university are like, what am I gonna do?

Twyla Garrett
Exactly! You better get into an internship now with somebody to get some experience.

Syama Bunten
Yeah.

you landed in a really, I mean, to go from no security at that time, you know, working for the government was high secure. mean, you was a very secure job. Tell me about sort of the inflection points as you started to establish yourself as a young woman. You know, when you started to earn money, how did you start to think about like, okay, Because I imagine, you know, unless your college did this, but you know, I was never taught any personal finance since growing up, right? No one was like, and here’s what you do, and here’s how you manage. you know, how did you start to think about managing your resources as you started to make money now for like yourself as as a young woman who’s really breaking out of what it sounded like was the mold of your background?

Right? Like you are now really establishing. what was it like? What did you do with those first paycheck?

Twyla Garrett
Shoot my very first day. Just so I was shocked when I got I was making $12 I think you know as an intern right I think maybe a little less but back then I started in 1989 or 90 89 90 so I when I first got my first check I You know, I was already doing some so what I didn’t tell you is that at 16 I went to H &R block and I told him I was 18 and Because they never asked I knew my social security numbers. I’m I know my numbers

You know, so don’t you may have to do a safe fill out your paperwork, right? So I fill out my paperwork and process me I went to the tax classes at 16 and I started making money. I started doing people’s taxes at 16 I still do them today. So Yeah, so I knew numbers. Yeah, I’ve got to tell you that I also worked at Xerox as a bookkeeper and they little thing when I was still in high school Yeah, listen, I needed to stay off the streets. If you were in the streets, you were gonna get caught up So what I did after school is I went off that bus and over to Xerox, off that bus and doing tax season. And I made money to the point where my father called the police and said he thought I was doing drugs. Yeah, my father called the police and said, OK, I think she’s doing drugs. Now he took all my money. He took all the money I saved. But he said, I think she’s doing drugs. And they took me down. Took me down to juvenile home. Of course, got the, you you better do this or you’re going to be banging me. OK. So money to me has always been when you’re in the hood.

You know, that’s everybody’s striving. The dope dealers is trying to get as much money as they can. The hustles on the street. So you kind of know money, but when you first get it in is legal, right? And I wasn’t doing anything illegal, but when it was legal, you really are scared. You know, ⁓ I knew that I didn’t know if I could get fired, you know, from the government. I didn’t know the rules of the engagements. And so now I got my first apartment, had to get out of the dorms and I got my first apartment.

And I remember paying $599 and I can remember this like it was that day. I slept on the floor for about three weeks so can get apartment furniture. But I wrote a budget. I put it by my accountant. So I put the budget together and I was like, okay, I got this coming in. Brenda’s going here. This is going there. I need a little bit here. I mean, I really kind of set a discipline that I got to get away to make sure I can live. I don’t want to go back down into the inner city or even to my father’s house because it was in the middle of the inner city.

Money to me was, okay, this is going to be a way out. My credit at that time wasn’t that great because, you know, when you’re in college, you get all those little department store cars to try to get clothing. Well, I probably had 21 of those damn things. I swear to God, it probably only had like $200 limits and $300 limits, but you got learners and lame right. I mean, I all kinds of craziness. But I was able to get an apartment. And I remember when I got that apartment, it was in the suburbs and I thought I made it.

I mean, and literally because I was so scared to go backwards, I managed every dime like it was my life. When the check came in, gave the rent. I remember the landlord told me, ma’am, you paid me three months in advance. Yep. I don’t want to get evicted. So I’ve been evicted. We’ve been evicted with my family. We’ve been kind of homeless and trying to figure out where to go to the next place. So those dynamics shaped. Ursuline did talk about money.

See, the one thing I could tell you, I don’t know what other schools did, but what Ursuline did in that business program of mine and people who took it, like the nurses and everybody who took those classes with us, they did talk about finance. They talked about debt. And so it wasn’t scary. You knew it. You just didn’t know how to manipulate it or make it work for you. I learned those tools a little more in advance. But what I also knew is that I need a car.

I need, you know, there was things that I had to save for. So it really gave me that discipline. And as I grew my career as a government employee, that also gave me confidence. I was already projecting what that bump increase would be, that step increase. I went from a seven, nine, 11, 12, 13. I mean, went boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Cause I, yeah, I was, I was good. I mean, was determined and every year it was like, she’s promoted, she’s promoted, she’s promoted. So I made sure to use those things.

But here’s the funny thing. By my second, maybe third year out, in the second year, going into my third year out, I decided to live and move from Cleveland, Ohio to San Diego, California, because they offered me a new job. They me like the deputy comptroller of Native North Island is where the Navy SEALs was. I’m like, hey, yeah, I’m going to, first of all, I’m single. I need to go where the men are at. This is absolutely great. And I’m going to love it. And now Twyla didn’t know how.

She knew nothing. There was no internet to search what the cost of living of San Diego is. We have none of that. Well, now remember I’m paying $5.99 in Cleveland. I get to San Diego. In the first three months, they put me up. They had me on the beach. I mean, I’m the life. It’s a studio. My brother comes with me, but that’s okay. I’m living the life. I’m on the beach. I’m in Mission Beach. I see Disney. mean, Sea World. I mean, it’s beautiful.

Syama Bunten
You’re like, can’t believe I made it.

Twyla Garrett
Yes, I had never seen a palm tree in my life and I was like, this is absolutely hell. San Diego was like Groundhog Day. It’s like you woke up and every damn day was the same. I said, what is it rain? There’s a snow. I had no clue. And they were like, no, it’s like this every day. I’m like, what? So I got a little depressed. I had to go find snow. I went up to Truckee. I went, yeah, I found this little mountain. I went up there for the snow because I was depressed. I was like, need.

I’m gonna have Santa in shorts. This don’t even make sense. It just made no sense to me. So at the end of it, but when I went, I got a rude awakening. Coming to San Diego and once those three months was over, I had to go look for a place. I went downstairs and I said, you know, I’m just gonna rent the studio. Can’t be that much. Can’t be that much. I think about what, 50,000, 60,000, whatever. It can’t be that much. I remember going into the rental office. I how much is the place if I just want to convert it from temporary housing to rent?

no worries. No worries. Let me see what we can do. You don’t need the furniture. No, no, no, I don’t need the first furniture up the ladies to order be eighteen hundred and ninety five dollars what And And I’m in immediately. I’m looking at my paycheck and I’m like, what? Both of my paychecks and leaving me with like 300 dollars. There’s no way I can afford it. And so Twilight had to go look. And the funny thing is, I live, ended up landing back in kind of the hood of San Diego. And so, but it was, was, was, it wasn’t safe. You saw MS 13 gay.

I’m serious. This was no lie. I’m like, well, hang on it. I didn’t take this job. I ain’t got to pay increases. I’m going backwards. The only lesson is my brother is like six foot three. he ain’t going to do it for me, right? He ain’t going to mess with his crazy stuff. So he like, well, we going back in the hood and all these be I was like, listen, this is all I can afford. I had never seen a rent this high before in my life. I never even knew what a mortgage payment was. But

Syama Bunten
Thank God.

Twyla Garrett
That reality check put me back into the savings mode. But it also put me in the hustle. So with Twilight Dew, I went and I start asking people, do you need bookkeeping help? Anybody who needs tax help? Anybody needs, so I opened up a small business called Professor Fund and found the dealership that needed a bookkeeper to run all the cars through at night. And I start to open up, I opened my first business in San Diego, a virtual business other than doing taxes with H &R Block. But I started running books.

And I was 24.

Syama Bunten
How old were you?

Amazing!

Twyla Garrett
Yeah, and shout out to Amir. Amir had LTD, auto sports, and let me tell you, he helped me. I didn’t know anything about inventory and cars. He’d go to the auction. Now, it was a luxury dealership. So it’s got Ferraris. yeah, this was some crazy stuff that was on display. He had Hummers, the first Hummer that was up. He had everything. And all of the people that came in was quite wealthy. In the back, they’re running the numbers. They had a little boy.

Syama Bunten
wow yeah

Twyla Garrett
And the little boy took affection to me. had a good time. But it was one of those things where Mir gave me a chance and I ran that little small business. I had my apartment and I finally found someone that blesses me. that’s why said somebody, you don’t know what you don’t know. I only had like $4,000 in my bank account. And in 19, I want to say 96, I went down the street, right? It was still in the hood, but it was closer to the MS-13 place. There was a sign that says,

gated community, houses, three homes left. So I went in to see what a house was. And I remember when I went in, the lady looked at me and she was like, do you have the down payment? I was like, how much is that? And she says 10%. I said, well, how much is the house? It’s 179. I was like, no, I have $4,000 in the pay. And she said, baby, call us when you get the money. If we still around, we only got three houses left, so we’d probably be sold in a couple of months.

But you know, if you ever get that, just come on back for mine. Four months later, that lady called and she told me that they have one house left, but I want to come see it. I was like, okay, I came to see it. I still only had the $4,000 in the account. And when I went to see it, no one beholden was beautiful. was like 1,700 square feet and.

I had already did the calculations. It came in my head saying, okay, it’s probably going to be a little less than this $1,800, $1,900 I’m paying in rent. I could probably get roommates. It four bedrooms, three back. I’m doing all this calculation. And again, she says, how much money do you have? I said, I told you, I only got $4,000. And she said, well, the owner will be here in a second at the complex to develop it. Talk to him. I talked to him and that guy helped me with my closing and my down payment. I bought my phone.

No. And that’s where I tell people when they talk about race, that gentleman was a white man who banked on twilight. And I thank him. He’s passed away. But that man changed my life. That was my first house. He helped me with closing. I remember moving into my first house in Friendly Circle in a gated community. My brother came over with me. I mean, he had never seen a house either.

Syama Bunten
How old were you?

Twyla Garrett
I bought that house when I was what? 26?

Syama Bunten
⁓ my gosh, I really-

Twyla Garrett
Maybe

26, 25, then. But if it wasn’t for him saying that he would help me with that closing and help me with the bank, mean, you my credit score made it went up a little bit, but it wasn’t that great, know. But you know, you never know where you end up. And what was so funny about this place is that it was only 50 homes. It was a gated community, the craziest across the street. And you knew.

that I knew that this was, I mean, I never had a home. My mom never had a home. She died without having anything. My dad had a home. Let me tell you how crazy that was. He died. And this is why real estate is still in my blood. When my father died three years ago, he lived in a house for 60 years and only had $40,000 or How is that possible? How is that possible? That’s BS. If you can’t call BS, no other BS. I mean, it doesn’t make sense when they talk about.

A remanded in redlining and and and the appraisal system is so jacked up. It’s unreal I mean, I don’t know what these things are doing now. They just randomly selecting things that don’t even make sense So things happen for reason that house stay with me for 29 years. I just sold it a couple years ago Only original owner and let me tell you it multiplied times a lot from what I bought

Syama Bunten
Wow. my gosh. And so that was your first taste into real estate. And also your creativity, your tenacity, and also the courage to say, I want this. I don’t know the details, but I’m going to put myself forward because I won’t know what I can have unless I ask.

Twyla Garrett
That was my first

That’s right. That’s right. And here’s the thing, a closed mouth don’t get fed. I wasn’t lying. I didn’t have the money. I mean, I didn’t even probably had a credit, but that man helped me. And I can tell you, I stayed in the house for about four and a half, five years, and I left and had to start. I started my business then, and I knew I needed to move to Louisiana. And I had a tenant, military, well, engineer. was an engineer. He had six kids. And he was in my…

property for years. He paid the money. 21 years, never late. Thank God for you, sir. 21 years, never late. I’m telling you, I got favor. And the only reason you get favor is because you get education. And education doesn’t just mean book smart, but street smart and all the smarts, right? I picked the right tenant who never was late. I was respectful. I did things. I made sure the property was upkeep. It was my only, my first property at that time. So I wanted to make sure that He took care of it. I would come back every year just to go look at it.

Syama Bunten
I mean, it’s incredible. you’re so at such a young age, you’re exhibiting you have this entrepreneurship, right? You’re like entrepreneurship, real estate now is starting adding to the mix. How did you start to develop and when did you make that leap to fully going into entrepreneurship? know, did you how long did you stay in the safe lane? How long did you do all of it together? Like what were some of the mechanics that helped you sort of build everything?

Twyla Garrett
29, 29 is when I said I’m over it. And the only reason I did is, and this is no downgrade to federal workers or government workers. I ran at a pace faster than they can catch up to me. And when I say that is that I ended up doing something that was phenomenal. It was called foreign military sales. I still love that job. It was probably one of my best jobs, but pretty much you’re selling weapons to NATO. Yeah, I’m army.

Syama Bunten
You

Twyla Garrett
It was such a great job. was top secret, all that great stuff. But you get to a point where you go through the seven, nine, 11, 12, and then, and they had a funky looking pay system back in California, which was like a 12, 13, and then you could get 12, 13, 14, but you’re stuck. And I remember my boss came to me and said, look, kid, you are going to have to wait about 10 years before you could get promoted in another.

Syama Bunten
all.

Twyla Garrett
And I said, is me 10 years, I just got my masters. And they said, look, look around you. There’s people that’s been in these seats for 20 years, 15 years. At that level where you’re at right now, you’re going to have to wait, you know, because when openings come up, hmm. Then in my mind, I read that as when openings come up, there’s only a few. I looked around like you told me to and I saw many, which means there’s still going to be a lot of people left behind.

They didn’t pay for my masters because they wanted me to do engineering, but I wanted to do business and yeah. So I, I did my thing. So I got now $50,000 debt on top of me. Plus I put my brother through culinary school to give him some education. So I got that debt on top of me and I’m like, okay, I’m struggling over here. Cause 70, 80,000, 70,000, $10,000 ain’t gonna make it. And my little hustle is doing his thing, but I’m broke. So I rented out every room in my house, every room I rented to an engineer.

that was working at my command. So I got some money for them to pay the mortgage so I can figure out to do some other things. And I remember talking to the admiral and I’m like, listen, I’ve got to, this is not gonna work. And so I knew then I put it on the street and what did they mean? I started talking to my contractor saying, look, I’ve got to find a job because I can’t wait 10 years. I mean, I’ll be broke in this rate. So I need to find something. And a couple of them was like, are you serious? Why are you gonna lead a government? I’m like, yeah, I don’t.

I’m gonna leave it over there. I gotta go to make some money if I’m gonna stay in San Diego. And those vendors are giving me offer like that doubled my salary. See, one thing I tell people, this is where this generation, what is it? the younger one. You better recognize you gotta wait your time. You gotta get some skills behind you. And the reason I say that is because I became indispensable.

Syama Bunten
Yeah.

Twyla Garrett
I knew I would. My clients, which wasn’t the government, which was these foreign countries, they loved Twyla. They talked about Twyla. They wanted Twyla. So when somebody wants you, Motorola, some of these people, they wanted me. And so when they want you, when they put that offer and I saw six figures, was like, well, I mean, I’m like, what was it? Wait a minute. And, but then it clicked. Well, if they don’t offer me that.

But I will do this myself.

Syama Bunten
Yeah.

Twyla Garrett
And so I went to a defense contractor came back after two weeks of being in and coming back in Walk right back into a government contracting job triples my salary And I had to move I had to do what I had to do I mean this is the part of being an entrepreneur my first some of my contracts were sitting in another state like in New Orleans and then all of a sudden I get to more of them trying to get comfortable there I get gun jacked by gunpoint

Carjacked yeah first week. It was just crazy and I start building the house there now the first thing I realized I’m gonna build a house So I start building the house. Let me tell you I’ve never slept one day in my home Because I got a contract two weeks before it was time to move in to leave there and come to Virginia Yeah never I had the boxes delivered and they picked them back up and shipped them up here to Virginia

Syama Bunten
Wow.

Twyla Garrett
Entrepreneurship so yeah, but it’s funny cuz my father I remember when I called him and I said I’m gonna quit the government and This is when you need naysayers folks. They said I said dad. I’m gonna quit the government I had called him dad. I only called him dad the first time at 26 And so I’m about 29 now and I said dad. I’m gonna quit the government He said you’re the biggest fool I’ve ever met. What do you mean? You got government work. You make great money you travel

He started listing all my benefits. I’m like, okay, that sounds good, but I’m broke. And I need to be able to pay these bills. got this now. And I just started refuting back to him. He said, I don’t want to hear all that. You just need to wait your time.

Syama Bunten
Yeah.

Twyla Garrett
Okay. Well, fast forward, not even a year later, we were at seven figures. So how about that? I told him, I called my dad. said, how about this? He said, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. believe you. I said, that’s all right. I needed you to tell me I wasn’t going to do nothing. I said, those words still play to this day when I’m going after a big contract.

I hear my mother’s words, you want to mount your shit, you want to be shit, you’re going to be dip, dip, dip, dip, dip, dip, that gives me fuel. It is like that is the fire under my tailbone to be like, all right, go in there and kill it T. This is what you do. Show these people wrong. Show them that they ain’t dealing with the average chick. I’m not the average girl.

Syama Bunten
I’m not talking about you. Talk to me about, you know, sort of this building when you decided to start building this real estate and construction and development empire. You know, it’s so one of the things that struck me so much when I first connected with you was not only are you a builder and a visionary, I mean, you really can see you can see things before others can’t and not just in a

profitability lens, but also in a people and humanity lens. that I think is really important and rare, right? When it comes to people who are thinking about building, you know, and the process and the food chain and to sort of think about, you know, what it looks like to really be in contribution to society. know, when did you decide? I mean, obviously your first home, you got at such an early age, but I’m sure that was just getting your getting your feet wet and then it sounds like you were like, all right, I’m gonna keep building.

Twyla Garrett
I built a home in every state that I had an office and it was seven. Yeah, no, I had dogs. And so I refused to rent because you most places didn’t take dogs and I had dogs. And so I was like, nope, everywhere I had an office, I had a home. And I was, I was smart enough to build a great portfolio. Even in that time in 2006, I ended up with the train station in Cleveland, blew the roof off of it, turned it to the jazz supper club. I mean, I was in construction and did not realize I was a developer. I was still doing my top secret.

stuff. And so I didn’t know what a GC was because I was always an owner and a PM. Right.

Syama Bunten
How did you get the option

to do it? Because I feel like in the first, in the beginning, to know who to hire, to know how to manage the contracts, to understand the capital intensiveness, and sort of like when things like, how did you start to build that knowledge? And can you unpack a little bit about the train station? it’s like, that is such a fabulous story. ⁓

Twyla Garrett
Now,

but my signature claim to fame was that train station. So here’s the thing about real estate guys. It’s not about, you don’t need a GC license. What you need to know is how to manage and project manage. And that starts at home. Be very honest with you. It’s very hard if you don’t manage at home how to manage a project, period. I don’t care what it is, right? So the discipline that the federal government gave, know, people laugh and joke and be like, oh my God.

You know, I remember they talked about paper work reduction at, and the next minute they reduced it from this big to this big. I’m like, what the hell? I mean, you still reading 50,000 pages, right? So it’s kind of one of those funny things that I got used to the minutia. I got used to the detail. I got used to millions. And let me say this, to go back to my college, the people who got me used to the million dollar numbers and not being afraid of eight figures, nine figures was not the DOD. It was my college.

It was my freshman sophomore year where my, my, my professor was doing like 30 million dollars with his business as an accountant. He had $30 million books. We were balanced and we saw things and examples of millions. had never seen them in easy road before when I was going in there. And the beautiful thing is making sure you’re acclimated early. So it doesn’t surprise you. I expect to make a million dollars with every business I open now.

If I don’t make a million dollars in a certain thing, I’m on pivot to figure out how we not going to get there, but we’re going to get there. And that has been my thing now. So it’s about management, not necessarily construction management. Cause if you don’t know to manage, I told you, I didn’t have a GC license when I did the train station and we turned out to be the largest jazz supper club downtown. And the Angie Stone who just died, she opened us up. I’ve had everybody, LeBron had been in there. Everybody been in there. I mean, it was the biggest jazz supper club. Shaq used to come in and chill with us.

Took us out for all this. It’s cool. But at the end of the day that I know how to run a restaurant, I know business. And that’s what I’m telling you guys. If you know business, you know numbers. I’m managed by numbers. I know when the numbers say get the hell out, close this thing. I know when the numbers say wrap up and scale. I know when the numbers say, okay, you’re coasting. Let’s figure out how we exit. But the more important thing I realized before I get into something, I know my exit. I knew my exit. When LeBron told us that he was going to be closing in, he’s going to be going to Miami.

When that word hit the street, I knew the sale. I need to get the hell out of there. I need to close this down because I knew it’s going to bankrupt Cleveland. And it did. It did. You got to have a forecast machine in your head. And that’s been a beautiful thing. And I think it goes back to me being on that school bus going over to the other side of town where you could see vision. You could see things. I saw people’s things that look totally different than what I ever seen. And then let me fast forward to my college. If you don’t know about Pepper Pike, Pepper Pike, Ohio, Lander Haven, that is the Rodeo Drive.

I mean, all of the Browns and lawyers and doctors, of the players, they all live out here. You know, and I was like, I remember babysitting. I had a little babysitting job and the lady was paying me $20 an hour. Who the hell pays you $20 an hour in 1990? Who you got, sweetie? I’m like, $20 an Yeah, I babysit this guy, okay? I babysit him all day. Let me live in here. I mean, it was one of these crazy things. So it was one of those things where you got…

Syama Bunten
Yeah.

Twyla Garrett
put in an environment and if you study the environment and love the environment and absorb it, it comes in your DNA. And so construction for me was first it was logical. It was like, okay, I want to know how they put this thing together and how much is the money and overruns and believe me, I’m all about budgeting and overruns. And I used to stop and be like, no, we’re not changing that design. Nope, we’re not moving here. We’re not moving here. The reason the train station came about is that I went to visit my father. He was in intensive care. They thought he was going to pass away.

I came off the road, I came back to Cleveland, I never went home. This is my first time home after leaving. Because of all the turmoil of being there and the people who abused me, I didn’t want to face that. So I didn’t come home. And I remember when I came home and I was sitting by his bed, I was at the hospital and he said to me, listen, kid, they need to know what you’ve done. People need to know about you. They call me Charlie. And I was like, dad, you got to do something here. And I said, I’ll do something in my time. You need to do something here to make sure people know that you came from. And I said, okay. And I remember leaving that hospital room. He still was in and I went to drive around this. Look at the city. hadn’t been home in years. And I remember ended up down in the flats and I saw like, well, got this train, bandit train station. You got this, you got that.

I start talking to people, find some developers that was there, start talking to them, saying, hey, really, there’s time to do some revitalization. I met an architect, the Bob Kornner, he was amazing. I mean, it was just one of those things where I was like, okay, I think I can do this. I mean, could actually do something here. And so it came into this project and Bob had a beautiful vision. So we ended up taking Italy and taking the streets of Italy and bringing it into Cleveland and then designing a coffee shop, places that I I mean, it was amazing. ended up, had the passion of the Christ people, people who actually did the set of passion. They came to the studio and they spoke all Italian. So I had to go to that university to get a person that spoke Italian because I didn’t know what hell they were talking about. And I put my dad in charge of them. And of course I had to fire him because he didn’t know what the hell they were talking about. It was absolutely crazy. And remember I put my brother through culinary school. Now I need to call on you. You come in to run this restaurant. I you’re give me my money back for this day. going keep it for a day.

And lo and behold, my brother was the executive chef. We pitched the tent in the inner city with the workforce development people. interviewed hundreds of people, up for jobs. We hired 80 people and they were homeless, ex-offenders, drug addicts, all of them. We hired all the people that you didn’t want. We hired them. And we opened up that building on September 22nd, 2008 to Angie Stone. And let me tell you, it’s all she wrote. We made millions the first year.

Syama Bunten
⁓ my God, Twilight.

Twyla Garrett
a beautiful give back. remember getting a couple of people off the drugs, one particular one of the chefs, he died. He had a massive heart attack coming off the drugs. But I remember at the funeral, his mom looked at me and said, my son was the happiest the last six months with you that he ever has been in his life. And that was gratitude. Now, I was prepared to lose my ass there. And I was prepared, but it was the give back to show them something. Hey, guys, you can believe in yourself.

I’m still that person. ain’t never changed. used to say, Twyla, you sold out. No, I sold up. I used to sell out. I sold up. And y’all got to sell up. And that’s why I opened my foundation for that reason. We’re raising capital now to do some work back in inner city of Cleveland. I’m going back home now. It started to affect the change inside. So real estate for me was just project management. It still is. It really is not money. Yeah, you need money. You definitely need some money. And so I had that coming from my other business, you know, so.

You know, it was one of those things where I will bet on Twyla before I would bet on anyone else. If you can’t bet on yourself, then you don’t need to be in the game. You need to have a job. you can’t bet on you, entrepreneurship is all about the rolling of the dice, baby. If you don’t go to Vegas, you’re to be Vegas in yourself because that is the nature of the beast. When you got, you know, real estate, well, not even real estate, any entrepreneurial journey is a role on you. ⁓ It’s all about you at that point.

You got to make sure you’re good so your employees are good so everybody else behind them is good.

Syama Bunten
What have been the ways, you know, it’s clear that your major investment thesis has been in like building and scaling your own business and then also sort of in real estate. How did you, you know, when did you start to expand or think about other asset classes like the stock market or starting to invest in other categories? How did you start to broaden and think about sort of the financial picture, I guess, as you were

Twyla Garrett
Entrepreneurs don’t have TSPs. We don’t really have thrift savings plans and the 401ks are a little different. You can have SEPs and things of that nature. And I am in the market, but I’m more heavily invested in real estate than I am there. And the reason for that is because I know I can make more of an impact and that my vision is there that I know I can scale quicker. do have now, it’s not a balanced portfolio. I would say my portfolio is probably 70, 30.

And real estate is 70. And then the reason for that is because I know here’s the thing. If you start affecting different areas, know, re gentrification has shown a lot of people that wouldn’t invest in inner cities. The investment of inner cities was the biggest bang you could get for your buck. I remember being in my office was in DC and I remember there was places in DC that cost $50,000 today. They’re worth 1.5 million. Wow.

Syama Bunten
my god

Twyla Garrett
One in five million. And I can tell you that it doesn’t just mean that you kick out every black and now everybody else is coming down the street. I welcome a Starbucks in my neighborhood. I welcome to see somebody walking a dog down the street. I welcome to see a cafe with people sitting outside eating. Because that tells you that environment and people will change. And that’s what I’m really trying to do now for the inner city.

That’s why I got a foundation right now. My Garrett Foundation was raising $2 million to affect the inner city, but it’s about affordable ownership, not affordable housing.

Syama Bunten
Talk to me about that. Talk about affordable ownership.

Twyla Garrett
Yeah, see, I don’t like affordable housing. And the reason I don’t like it is because we were in it. And I can tell you when you’re in affordable housing, it is the cheapest built thing you can imagine. And when you don’t own it, you don’t take care of it. Bottom line is, if you go to the inner city, the biggest thing that you’re going to see that people got money is, is in two things. One is in their vehicle. That’s why you see $10,000 room on a hooptie. And the other one is in their closet. That’s why you see Prada, Louis, Gucci, Fendi. They close.

Cause that’s the only thing they own. When you don’t have anything else to own, you don’t take care of it. So I’ve got to get inner cities to change. And I’m going in starting with my hometown in Cleveland. I’m a buy-up land and we’re going to build condo models where we give back. You got to come off of section eight in order to get offered one of these buildings, partnering with fifth thirds and some banks in Cleveland. That’s where our goal is. We want the banks to be involved to do training and say, what does condo ownership mean? How does it work?

How do you own it? What is the homeowner’s boards? All that good stuff, right? Giving them education, but more importantly, eradicating food deserts at the same time. So everything we build that has apartments or condos up top will have some type of mixed use at the bottom that can offer you a job to pay that mortgage. To pay that mortgage. It is a sad state of affairs that I can still go in my inner city and have to drive to a decent grocery store. And I mean decent, not the shop, right? Shade marks and all this other crazy.

dollar generals that have food, I’m talking about a decent one with fresh vegetables. It’s probably a five to seven mile drive. That makes no sense. You know, why do you have people coming in the inner city for diabetes, you know, treatment, you got the buses coming in, taking them out. Why can’t we have a diabetes center in South? So these are the building and the constructs that I want to build that’s going to put centers in there to get people walking.

Right? You need them to walk. Why don’t you get them to walk to the damn diabetes city so they don’t. So I want to go in and say, Hey, Cleveland clinic, you right around this damn corner. Come on over here and put this clinic here and let’s have some community work done. Come on, you know, university hospital. How about you publics? Why don’t you put a supermarket under here or a little blooms in the here with fresh vegetables, nothing fried. We’ll need nothing else fried in the city. I don’t need nothing else for. Because that’s why we got the diabetes. So let’s.

change the dynamic, let me cut up the curves on the streets, let me widen the sidewalk so people can eat on the corner, let’s put some landscape, how about put some trees and line this damn corridor up to make it look nice? So people will respect what they live, where they live. And if we don’t bring that in, we’re not gonna be able to sustain. And that’s why I hate, I hate it, it’s a HUD and everybody comes up with these big affordable housing things, let’s do this, let’s do that. Or you give these tax credits and they only give you, out of 100 units, 15. No, why don’t you build buildings that they own? Do you know my construct? It’s less than section eight would pay. It’s less than what you would get in section eight. Yeah. Imagine buying a $200,000 townhouse or condo is two or three bedrooms. 200,000, we can do that. It ain’t unreasonable. Build that, give it to somebody. Their mortgage will be about 900 a month. Section eight’s paying 1,100 for a two bedroom. You see what I’m saying?

Wow. you want to give them an assistant, give them an assistant. But at the end of the day, they own this place. And I guarantee you, they’re not going to smoke it up. They’re not going to f it up. They’re not going to do nothing to it. They’re going to make sure that that sucker is painted, smells good, because they own it. They have a power of ownership. And that’s what we are missing in inner cities. And I don’t care what flavor you are in the inner city, whether you’re white, Hispanic, Black, if you don’t own it, you don’t take any pride in it no more. Because you know it might take away.

You might be turned down, like you’re subject to be evicted. You already know that.

Syama Bunten
How?

Twilight, this is like such legacy work as you’re thinking about, you know, let’s say your life at a young 102. And look, and we’re having this conversation for the 10th time. And you’re sort of looking back on legacy and what you’ve built is tell me what this legacy looks like. Are you at the beginning stages of it? I am. is your vision?

Twyla Garrett
I want you guys to be part of it. I want women builders to be part of it. I envision that there now will be no divide line between inner city and suburbs. Why? Because you can flow seamlessly throughout. What my universe is going to create in these inner cities is equitable appraisals, where if you now buy a house or that condo for 200,000 in 10 years, you’ve made, you’re in the 250.

you getting that whole elevated community up. You’re not going to be like my father who buys something at 40,000 and lives 60 years paying something right 60 years because he had to refinance and take a second mortgage and all that stuff. And you still are only getting appraisal of about 80,000 bucks. How was that possible? I want to never see that. I want to be 102 and look in the community and see some dogs walking.

I want to see some people eating on the streets. want to see those lights strong like in Beverly Hills through that median where you got some trees that’s lined up. That’s beautiful. I’ve never seen an orchard tree in the hood. I’ve never seen anything blooming in the sidewalks. I’ve never even seen the sidewalks with people on them other than bodies that might’ve been shot. So why not communicate that? I want a seamless community where we’re tied into the police department and community policing is really community policing.

that they’re on the streets walking with you and that mothers with diabetes and brothers with diabetes are walking down the street to their dialysis center and maybe behind there is a gym that they go to next so they can lose the weight, get healthier and get smarter. That’s what I want to do.

Syama Bunten
That’s

so beautiful.

Twyla Garrett
want

to package it, replicate it, and take it to every inner city. That’s what the Garrett Foundation wants to be known for. That’s what I want to name a building after my mother, because even though you were crazy as hell, you created this monster. And I’m so grateful for it. I want to name a building after my dad, because he was that quiet soul. He didn’t do anything but say, you got two things. You got to go to church. You got to go to school. OK. That was it. And that work, that discipline work.

Syama Bunten
That’s good.

Twyla Garrett
So, know, so that’s what I want. I want to leave a legacy where people can see that someone did try to say there shouldn’t be a HUD. HUD should be a myth in the sense of not having just low income. Create jobs for everyone. My girlfriend, Michelle, her mom just passed this year and you know she was blind. And I remember meeting Michelle when we were in college. Her mother got up every day and went to work blind. She got on a bus, went to a location.

and work a cashier’s job. Now, if somebody can do that, blind, we ain’t got no damn excuse. Let’s look at how we can help those people who can’t really, with real mental illness, let’s create some ecosystems for those people that they still can thrive in. I want to create that environment. I would love to walk and see a coffee shop in the hood that ain’t got bars on it that’s bulletproof. I would love to see some real food, a real nice fine dining in the hood.

Syama Bunten
Yeah.

Twyla Garrett
How about that? Where you appreciate to dress up and come in and have a dinner and celebrate. I want to be able to come into the hood and say, everybody put their guns down, give them away. Because we don’t need them. We got jobs for them. We got money for what we have.

Syama Bunten
That’s amazing, Twyla. How powerful. It’s so beautiful.

Twyla Garrett
I got a TED talk in Berlin in September and that’s what I’m bringing to the stage. I want to know how we can affect the community. I want an impact investor that can ride this with me. That’s what I want. I want someone that sees my vision, has that extra revenue stream that says, you know, want to bet on you because here’s the thing, we’re not doing it for charity. We’re selling that back to you.

We’re giving you a mortgage. We’re going to, if you don’t want to do what you do and do it right, you will get foreclosed. And we’re going to show you the principles of living. This is a step up and we got to make sure you’re ready to step up. so what a good impact investor behind me or investors behind me, this model will work. We can prove it. can tie it. Cause I can tell you if you got people who own some.

and they put their money in it. That’s why you’ve got a lot of people that own families that own homes in the inner city, but they don’t have the money to fix it up. They don’t even know how to fix it up. They don’t have the vision to fix it up. They don’t even know what they could do to get a driveway, you know, to make it look beautiful, beautification. That goes a long way when you walk down the street and you see trees, right? And you see the birds flying and you see, you know, it’s just a whole different feel. that’s

Syama Bunten
It’s the different vision and it’s a different way of like relating to ourselves, right? And what it is that we want. So Twilight, two final questions for you before we sadly say goodbye and then get to hang out later. And I get to give you big hugs. My second to last question is, we’ve talked a lot about now leading through the lens of service and giving back and

Twyla Garrett
You’re welcome.

Syama Bunten
investing in real estate, investing in investing in things that you know, being an entrepreneur, I’m sure we could talk for hours and hours and hours about all of these things. But I want to know as of late, what has been the most fun or fabulous way in which you’ve spent your money on yourself? Tell me something fabulous.

Twyla Garrett
Well, currently I am building a hotel in Ghana that is designed by me, that’s being built by me and is owned by me. So it’s a 30 room boutique. It’s in Cape Coast. You know, we’re running through some stags right now that we’re going through, but it’s in Cape Coast and hopefully next year we will open. It is my passion project. I wanted to go back to the motherland and affect life and change there.

You know, there’s a lot of things that can happen there. So that’s my fun. I mean, I put my money where my mouth is. I do love to travel. I mean, that’s my, my, my goal is when you don’t see me for a month is because I’m probably on a unplug and recharge mode. But that is it. mean, I’m traveling or this hotel and I’m doing this model because I want to figure out how to work in Africa or even outside of the U S and then how I can replicate this model and help other people come in.

Syama Bunten
either on the list side.

I love that. Alludes to my final question, which is around how the audience, how we can support you. So you alluded to some impact investors and I’m sure that there’s a lot of opportunities for the right people to support you. But you tell us what is it we can do to champion your work? How can we support you right now?

Twyla Garrett
Well, more importantly, go to my website is twylagarrett.com. T-W-Y-L-A-G-A-R-R-E-T-T.com. Go in, subscribe, like, get my newsletter, follow me, right? Cause having people with like minds in the same space, it helps, you know? And some of you guys give me some of the greatest ideas. So please, and I threw it out all the time. I have a mentoring program called the Impact League. And the reason I have that is cause now I want to change lives of small businesses too. There’s too many businesses starting the wrong way.

And then they just don’t know how to scale and, and, they get the luck and scale quick. then they’d be like, what the hell do I do now? And they haven’t even gotten a business plan. So follow me at the impact league.co that’s impact league.co, know, join me there too. That’s for the business there to get mentored between now and the end of the year. got a hundred businesses and I’m talking to 100. Yeah. Today I had nine businesses from six 30 this morning. And I got two more of this after, after we talk.

And I have committed, they’ve cleared my schedule for December to do this. This is my, I get one hour to each of these businesses to try to reshape them, move them back, move them forward. And so do that. But more importantly, it is, I need an impact investor. I want you guys to look to the right and the left. If you know of somebody that really wants to make a difference and wants to make an impact and knows what it means to really affect people’s lives the right way.

that it can be long lasting, sustainable and generational wealth is built. Please have them call me, go into my social media, which is Instagram at FedBizLady or Twyla Garrett or LinkedIn, I’m Twyla Garrett. Just go into my DMs and let me know. I would love to talk to anybody that might have someone that I have a mutual alignment with that we can grow together. And here, if you need to grow and you want to talk about real estate, hit me up.

There is some good, bad and ugly in real estate. We know it, right? We’ve been in it and we always see the ugly. We got a pivot from the ugly, but I think a lot of times if you are afraid to take the leap, take the leap. That’s what you can do for me. Okay. Take a leap for yourself. Bet on you. Come out of 2026, rolling the dice with your name on it on all damn sides. Put your name on some dice, rolling suckers and you just Did not crap out what you just want. And now bet on you. So that’s.

Syama Bunten
Bye.

I love that.

Twyla Garrett, you are a tour de force. You a beautiful smile, a brilliant heart. I’m so grateful to have spent this hour with you. Thank you for your generosity of spirit and for the legacy and the life that you are creating and that you have lived so far. Thank you for being here.

Twyla Garrett
Thank you. Thank you so much, everyone. Have a wonderful holiday or a wonderful season.

Syama Bunten
Thank you for listening. This is the conversation we come back to every single week. Real women, real wealth, and what becomes possible when we stop being silent about money. If today’s episode moved you, don’t let it stop here. Wealth Catalyst is where women go to take it further. Our Freedom Tour salons are gathering women in 32 cities this year. Intimate evenings in homes and private spaces where women talk honestly about money, risk, and what they’re building.

And if you’re ready to go even bigger, join us at the Wealth Catalyst Summit, a full-day event in San Francisco this October. Find your city and claim your seat at wealthcatalyst.com. We’ll see you there.